Category Archives: Leading

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When you have dreams and goals, best that you set yourself in a direction to achieve them. Your actions and choices need to be a good fit with your dreams and goals or you can be led astray. Have you ever had an opportunity come along that appears exciting or useful in some way but you have a feeling it may not be right? Trust that feeling and explore carefully any opportunities that show up. Will an opportunity take you in the direction you want to go or is it a detour or distraction from your goals and dreams that appeals to some other part of you?

When you find the opportunities that are the right fit, you’ll move quickly towards achieving your goals and dreams!

When I was in college, a professor advised me that if I wanted to be a leader I must have a wellspring within me to draw from. His advice stayed with me and has proven to be sage.

An inner wellspring provides strength, inspiration, endurance, wisdom and counsel in times of growth and when you face positive or negative challenges. Your wellspring can be faith, centeredness, continuous learning, silence, respite, or whatever feeds you. By building your wellspring, you give yourself an advantage in being able to handle whatever comes your way. Do you have an inner wellspring that refreshes you?

Do you pursue mastery in any part of your career? Mastery creates focus and alignment. It involves fulfilling your potential and becoming all you can be. You and everyone else are capable of mastery. You just have to set out to pursue it.

How can you start? Pick an area where you want to achieve mastery. Look around and find someone who has or is achieving mastery and study what they have done. Identify steps you can take this year towards mastery in your area and get started. Mentors can help you to achieve mastery. Mentors come in the form of a book, media, a person. Set your intention to persist and have courage and one day, mastery will be yours.

You can get to a place in your career where you are asking yourself, “What’s the use?” Many things can get you to this question: an inability to affect what happens in your workplace, failure, frustration or obstacles you are not able to overcome. When this occurs – beware. At the point of feeling powerless, you are obviously not at your best.

If you find yourself asking, “What’s the use?” take some time to assess what has gotten you there. Remember that you are CEO of your career. You have some control over what happens. If something isn’t working for you, you know how to move on and make it better.

A well-known quote from Lucius Annaeus Seneca says “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” One way to establish the aim (and wind) to carry you forward is to identify what you hope to gain from your work in 2019. Are you looking for a promotion, satisfaction, monetary compensation, building skills, growth, being of service to others?

Ask yourself “What payoff am I going for this year?” In doing so, you will firmly set your aim and your plans will carry forward.

How are things moving along for you in the new year? Just right? Slow? At warp speed? It helps to focus on the type and level of momentum you want to create in 2019. In doing so, you set the pace of the year and, hopefully, ensure a productive and fulfilling one.

Momentum involves many aspects of your work, including the pace at which you work, the amount of work you handle and the direction you go in. Take a moment to look at the level of momentum you created in 2018. Then, set your sights on the new year and creating a level of momentum that works well for you. Before you know it, you’ll be in your “zone” and getting to where you want to be.

In this time of polarity, sides are drawn and listening is not always an honored skill. How would our workplace interactions be different, if all viewpoints were welcomed and valued?

For one, we’d have access to a variety and diversity of ideas. We would be more sensitive to and, possibly, understanding of each other. We could synthesize ideas and come up with more creative and sustainable approaches.

My Mom was a Rosie The Riveter during World War II in southern California. You know the motto: “We Can Do It!”

How does a “can-do” attitude fit into your work life? Has it been stifled by work cultures that discourage creativity and individual initiative? Has it been encouraged by those who realize the power of empowering workers? A “can-do” attitude serves you well. If you do not have many opportunities to cultivate it – find some.

A can-do attitude is contagious and leads you to opportunities you will never find by standing still.